Item #: 14977DV Category: VAMPIRES Format: DVD MPAA Rating: PG

Woolly Rating: 5/10 (47 votes)

MEMBER COMMENTS ON THIS VIDEO

jd	Sep 9, 2004 @ 16:55:41

<[:-} "like two young roes that are twins"
no doubt, the real attraction of "lemora..." is cheryl "rainbeaux" smith, who seems completely at home in front of the camera while still projecting a very convincing innocence, a true "natural" actress. in the commentary with director richard blackburn, producer richard fern, and leslie "lemora" gilb, gilb lets it slip that smith was only 16. one of the guys audibly drops a deuce. they praise her often for her gameness, even to the extent of eating raw meat as if it were lettuce. they later reveal that "she was taking painkillers during the whole production," which probably explains a lot. they say that while shooting the nude scene with the "unfortunately" small bathtub "the backers wanted to come in a ogle her." the bath scene would have been discrete enough and beautiful enough to qualify as "art" on screen in a theater, but the technology of dvd w/ pause allows perverts like me to enjoy smith's lovely right lower and left upper profile at leisure. smith is showcased in weird but loveable film. rod recommends this dvd, but balks at calling it arty, relating an specific, egregiously inept cinematography mistake they admit to, one of very many that somehow "work." the commentary seems to studiously avoid cinematography details, except the fact that they switched art directors mid-production, replacing a friend with a more experienced a.d. blackburn seems unable to remember most of the technical process. i am ignorant of the art of filmmaking but i spotted some glaring deviations from filmmaking convention. the use of blue tint, filters, and/or lighting to signify darkness can be traced back at least as far as the early silent serial "judex." in "lemora..." it is used against convention for candle-lit scenes, which are usually filmed red-brown, to emphasize warmth. lemora has consumptive "fever spots" on her cheeks that i took to be a makeup malfunction, a failure to conceal freckles. the notion of a vampire having fever is very unconventional, and i don't think it is effective. after being attacked by lila's father, she and lemora thoughtlessly leave "solange" ("the old woman") for dead as she lies twitching in agony on the porch, without so much as a backward glance. i think "lemora..." qualifies as "outsider art," which is driven by unique, "unspoiled" conception rather than learned craft. one of the commentary guys said the village voice split the difference and called "lemora..." "artsploitation." the commentary reveals that the production went by too fast for comfort, and they felt the movie getting away from them. toward the end cfi (?) took over production, resulting in a confusing ending that uses a lot of repetitious padding to reach feature length without additional footage being shot. in my ignorance, i was a little surprised to find out that the salacious page containing "thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins" was from "the song of solomon!" being from a tiny town dominated by southern baptists, i wasn't surprised by the references to baptists, dancing, pedophilia, and general hypocrisy. the first time i watched the movie there was a screen with a "for cheryl" tribute that i never was able to find again. imdb says she died of hepatitis complications in 2002. i found a page through google that confirmed my suspicion that she was yet another member of my generation to recently succumb to the smoldering morbidity of hepatitis c.

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